


a love that endures

by andromedagalaxy



Series: Philkas College Verse [39]
Category: Eyewitness (US TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-04
Updated: 2017-08-04
Packaged: 2018-12-10 23:48:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11702397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andromedagalaxy/pseuds/andromedagalaxy
Summary: “Who all is gonna be at this?” Lukas asks.Philip sits back, facing forward again and sinking down into the seat. “Not sure. A couple of their friends. Tony. That FBI lady. Your dad.”“Right.” Lukas sets his jaw and nods, staring out the road. “Where are they doing it?”“Uh, by the big tree outside the barn, I think,” Philip says.“Do they need somebody to like—I don’t know, like a priest or something?”Philip realizes that he hasn’t been asking enough questions. “You nervous or something?” he asks, the corner of his mouth quirking up.





	a love that endures

Lukas’s voice cuts into the darkness. “What if we stay in a hotel?”

Philip snorts, fluffing his pillow up a little bit more behind his head. “Why would we pay for a room when we can stay for free in one of two different places?”

Lukas sighs and shifts closer behind him, the mattress squeaking. “Don’t you feel like a kid when we stay there? And they treat us like kids? We’re not kids, Philip, we live on our own and have a dog we keep care of and we have sex all the time.”

Philip closes his eyes, shaking his head and trying not to smile. He doesn’t know what Lukas considers an adult, but it’s goddamn hilarious that he thinks the amount of sex they have has anything to do with it. “Do you really want to stay in a hotel?”

“Maybe.”

“There are like five hotels in Tivoli. Not even.”

“I bet they’re very…quaint,” Lukas says. He starts picking at something on the back of Philip’s shirt, scratching at the spot. Philip hums, pressing back into him. “Your back still hurting?” Lukas asks, digging his thumb into the spot.

It feels so good but Philip reels in any sexual noises he might be tempted to make, because he’s goddamn exhausted. Classes this term have been ridiculous, and he was shooting a wedding all day today. Lukas came along, which was nice, but the bride encouraged them to get in on every dance. It was amazing, so much fun, but it definitely contributed to how tired he is right now. “Yeah,” he says, simply. 

“Want me to put some icy-hot on it?” Lukas asks, still massaging the spot. 

“No, don’t get up,” Philip says. He reaches back and takes Lukas’s hand, tugging his arm around him. “Let’s go to sleep, babe. The vow renewal isn’t for a month still and we have midterms and shit to focus on.”

“Okay,” Lukas breathes, but Philip can tell a dejected tone when he hears one. Lukas leans in and presses a string of kisses to Philip’s neck. Philip closes his eyes and enjoys it, content to fall asleep exactly like this. Lukas settles his head down on the pillow and Philip is just beginning to drift off when Lukas speaks again. “Philip.”

Philip can’t help but smile a little bit. “Yes?”

“I wanna stay in a hotel,” he whispers. 

“Lukas, Izzy probably won’t even be able to stay with us in those hotels,” Philip says. “Do you wanna leave her with your dad or something?”

“No…” Lukas trails off. 

“Babe, maybe when—maybe—” And the next sentence that almost comes out of his mouth is _maybe when we get married_ but that’s jumping too far ahead. He knows Lukas wants to get married at home, because he’s said it before. But he doesn’t know if he wants to be separate the night before. He doesn’t know if he wants to be together but at one of their places. And he gets a little dizzy thinking about their wedding. He knew it was gonna crop up the closer they got to this vow renewal of Helen and Gabe’s, but every time he thinks about it he feels a little bit sick. Not because he doesn’t want it, the fucking opposite—he wants it so bad his whole soul aches, and he’s afraid that if he thinks about it too hard the dream will shatter, and everything will fall apart. 

“This time we should just stay at your dad’s,” Philip says, finally. “And, uh—another time, when we go there, maybe we’ll leave Izzy with one of them and get a hotel. Okay?”

“Okay,” Lukas says, leaning in and kissing his cheek. “I’ll let you sleep now, little sleepyhead.”

Philip snorts. “Thank you.”

“Dream of me on the dance floor,” Lukas whispers in his ear. 

“Oh yeah,” Philip says, closing his eyes and smiling to himself. “Why wouldn’t I? That’s the stuff dreams are made of.”

“You know it.”

~

They get through midterms unscathed and make it to spring break, finally. They take Izzy to the dog park for one last jaunt before they rent the car and head to Tivoli. Lukas teases Philip, asking him if he wants to drive, but Philip has no real interest in being anything but the navigator for this journey. He passed the test and got his license a little while back, but he can’t say he exactly likes driving. 

Philip looks back at Izzy, who is nestled in about ten blankets and pillows in the back seat. They didn’t want to put her in a carrier, but they were still worried about her peeing on the seats. She’s sleeping and Philip takes another picture of her with his phone, smiling to himself. 

“Who all is gonna be at this?” Lukas asks. 

Philip sits back, facing forward again and sinking down into the seat. “Not sure. A couple of their friends. Tony. That FBI lady. Your dad.”

“Right.” Lukas sets his jaw and nods, staring out the road. “Where are they doing it?”

“Uh, by the big tree outside the barn, I think,” Philip says. 

“Do they need somebody to like—I don’t know, like a priest or something?”

Philip realizes that he hasn’t been asking enough questions. “You nervous or something?” he asks, the corner of his mouth quirking up. 

“No,” Lukas says, but he says it in that strange roundabout way that makes Philip think that he actually is nervous. “I mean—I just hope there’s like—I don’t want anybody there to like, judge us or say something shitty.”

Philip shakes his head. “No way,” he says. “All their friends know about me, know that we’re together. It’s fine. Definitely not the place.”

Lukas looks over at him and his face is already relaxing. “Good,” he says. 

“You okay now?” Philip asks, raising his eyebrows. 

“I just hope I don’t look stupid wearing a tie,” Lukas says. 

“You look great wearing a tie,” Philip says, giving him a sultry look.

“I swear to God,” Lukas says, laughing and shaking his head. “If you goddamn tease me throughout this thing I’m gonna kill you later.”

“Kill me how?” Philip asks, maintaining his heavy-lidded expression.

“Not with sex,” Lukas says. “Hey, can I have a bite of my sandwich?”

Philip has it in his lap. He pulls the wrapping back and holds it in front of Lukas’s mouth, watching him take a big bite. “More?” he asks, and Lukas nods. Philip clicks his tongue, pulling the paper back a little more. “You’re gonna choke,” he says, as Lukas takes another bite.

Lukas chuckles a little bit, muffled around his chewing. “I’ll be fine,” he says, his mouth full.

~

They stay at Bo’s so they can let Helen and Gabe have their little romantic deal with this whole thing, and when they get there he’s standing on the porch waiting for them. 

“Hey, you two,” Bo says, as he approaches the car. “Where’s that little dog?”

“Right back there,” Philip says, getting out of the passenger side. When he walks around Bo claps him on the shoulder, looking at him appreciatively, and Philip doesn’t forget to thank his lucky stars for how far they’ve come. Lukas opens the back door and has to bar Izzy’s way so she doesn’t leap out onto the ground.

“Well look at that, she’s so big now,” Bo says, reaching down to pat her head. 

“Humongous,” Lukas says, laughing and taking hold of her leash. 

“Lemme get your bags…”

Philip writes out a text to Gabe and Helen, letting them know they got here safe. 

“We’ve only got a few things,” Lukas says, watching his dad walk around to the back and open the door. Lukas makes eye contact with Philip. “Anything going on tonight?”

“Think we’re heading into town for dinner,” Philip says, and when Bo walks back around with their bags he nods at them. 

“Think they want the three of us and the dog over there tomorrow a little bit ahead of time, so we can get things going,” Bo says.

“And the dog?” Lukas snorts. “Is she gonna be a part of this?”

“Might have heard something about putting flowers in her hair,” Bo says, laughing a little bit.

Philip’s mind briefly betrays him and he thinks _maybe she should be our ring bearer when the time comes_ and he blinks to himself, trying not to blush. 

~

They go out for pizza since they’re gonna have a big dinner at home tomorrow night, and Lukas keeps squeezing Philip’s knee under the table, taking the teasing crown from him for the night. 

“Who all is gonna be there tomorrow?” Lukas asks, looking up at Helen, his hand still locked around Philip’s leg. Philip shakes his head because Lukas already asked him this in the car, but he keeps quiet. 

“Probably about fifteen or so people, including us,” Helen says, taking a bite of her slice. “Nothing massive. Some friends, Tony, Kamilah, Gabe’s parents—”

“Oh, I’ve never met them,” Lukas says, looking at Gabe. 

“They’re in their later years, but they still know how to tear up the dance floor,” Gabe says, and Lukas laughs, looking at Philip. 

“That’s awesome,” Lukas says.

“Yes,” Helen says, smiling. “My mother wasn’t able to make the journey but I’m sure we’ll get a phone call right in the middle of the ceremony.”

Philip hasn’t ever met Helen’s mother but he did speak to her on the phone once, and he could tell where Helen gets her fierceness from. 

“Speaking of, uh—Philip,” Helen says, leaning forward and resting her elbows on the table. “We probably should have asked you this beforehand, but—” She looks at Gabe and Philip feels his heart make a little leap.

“What is it?” Philip asks.

“Philip,” Gabe says. “It’s just a renewal, it’s not a legal ceremony, so for the officiant we can have whoever we want. And we want it to be you.”

Philip stares at them, then looks over at Bo to make sure it’s actually a real thing, that he’s really hearing this. Bo smiles warmly at him, nodding, and then Philip looks at Lukas, where his own emotions are mirrored. He looks at Helen and Gabe again. “Why—why would you want—want me?” he asks, his voice wavering.

Helen narrows her eyes a little bit and laughs. “You’re our kid. You were our number one choice.”

Philip chuckles a little bit, tears springing to his eyes. His throat goes tight and he rubs his hand over his chest. 

“So what do you say?” Gabe asks.

Lukas grabs his hand under the table and weaves their fingers together. 

“Yeah, of course I will,” Philip says, and they all erupt in a little celebration. He smiles so hard he feels like his face is gonna break.

“Thank God,” Gabe says, laughing.

“They actually thought you were gonna turn them down,” Bo says. “They’ve been waffling back and forth about it for a week or more.”

“Oh my God,” Philip says. “You guys didn’t have to be scared to ask me! I’m just worried I’ll mess it up.”

“No, you won’t,” Helen says, shaking her head. “We’ll probably mess up our own crap, but we’ll see. You can say whatever you want to say but we found a little script online if you wanna do a take on that.”

“Okay,” Philip says, grinning. He clears his throat and wipes his eyes, feels Lukas lean in and kiss him on the forehead. 

“We also wanted to ask something else, sort of…a plan for the future,” Helen says.

“This is an eventful dinner,” Lukas says, happily. 

“How are the swimming lessons going?” Bo asks, looking back and forth between them. 

“I wouldn’t exactly call them lessons,” Lukas says, exchanging a look with Philip. “But he can, uh—swim out into the middle of the pool as long as I’m close by, right Philip?”

“Yeah,” Philip says. “And I went in the deep end once and I didn’t die.”

Lukas snorts. “He’s better than he gives himself credit for. He can float and tread water and swim pretty good. A lot better than never wanting to get into the water.”

Bo looks at Helen and Gabe and they have a little silent conversation that makes both Philip and Lukas narrow their eyes. 

“So would—” Helen starts, holding her hands out. “Would a…a cruise be fine? This isn’t the Titanic, it’s not, uh—well it’d be in the summer so icebergs wouldn’t exactly be an issue. And we wouldn’t be going in water where they’d be anyway. But…yeah. I don’t know why I even mentioned that.”

Gabe snorts, dipping his head into his hands.

“What?” she says, slapping him on the shoulder.

“A cruise?” Philip asks. “Isn’t that ridiculously expensive?”

“Well,” Gabe says, laughing at Bo. “Well, this guy—”

They turn to look at Bo, and Philip can feel Lukas tightening his grip on his hand a little bit. 

Bo smiles wide. “We were out to dinner and they were having a raffle for a family cruise and I—I got lucky.”

Lukas scoffs. “You _won a cruise_?” he half-yells. “And you didn’t tell me? What the hell?”

Helen and Gabe share a look that Philip doesn’t miss, but then they both hone in on him and he tries to suppress a smile at how excited they look. 

“Lukas,” Bo says, smiling too. “It just happened, days ago.”

“So!” Lukas says, looking at Philip and shaking his head. “If that was us I would have texted you immediately.”

“Philip, do you think you’d be alright surrounded by all that water?” Helen asks. 

“We’re all gonna go?” Philip asks. “He said family cruise.”

Bo gestures to the table and clasps his hands together. “That’s what this is,” he says. 

Philip’s heart does another little flip at that and he shifts his lips a bit, nodding. 

“It was enough tickets for all of us, yeah,” Gabe says, glancing at Bo and clearing his throat a little bit. “You think you’d be okay?” he asks, focusing on Philip again.

Lukas looks down at him and Philip can tell he’s still trying to be mad, but he’s clearly excited at the prospect of a cruise. “You’d be fine, right babe?” he asks. “It’d be like…being on an island. A moving island. And you’d be with me the whole time.”

“We thought it would be fun,” Helen says, smiling softly. And Philip knows how much she deserves some fun, so he nods. He pretty much plans to be plastered to Lukas’s side the whole time, especially when they’re on the upper deck. “Really?” Helen asks, grinning. 

“Yeah,” Philip says. He looks at Lukas. “You think we could leave Iz with Angela?”

“Yeah, I’m sure it’d be fine,” Lukas says. “How long is it?”

“A week,” Bo says. “Would that be too long?”

“She’d be sad,” Philip says. “But she might be distracted by her cousins, so I’m sure it’d be okay. We’d probably get a bunch of photos and videos every day.”

“So is this a yes?” Gabe asks, taking a bite of his pizza. 

“Would probably be fun,” Lukas says, shrugging a little bit. “They always have all kinds of shit to do on cruises.”

Philip smiles, and he can imagine a lot of it is romantic shit. Another thing he can add to the list of events he never thought he’d get to participate in with Lukas. He can imagine watching the sunset with him on the deck. Having their own cabin. “Yes,” he says. “Definitely, we’re in.”

“That’s great,” Bo says, nodding, and he seems to deflate in what looks like relief. “Perfect.”

“You’re really excited about this, huh?” Lukas asks, looking at his dad.

“Yeah,” Bo says. “You could say that.”

~

Lukas throws Izzy’s squirrel toy into the little space between the hay bales and she skids through them, kicking up dust. Philip is on the ground, scrolling through the internet to try and find out what the hell he should say as officiant. 

“Stop worrying so much about it,” Lukas says, patting Izzy’s side when she rushes back. He throws the toy again and she huffs, chasing after it. “There’s hardly gonna be anybody there and they all know you.”

“Even worse that they know me,” Philip says. “I can’t mess it up because I can’t do that to Helen and Gabe.”

“You’re not gonna mess it up,” Lukas says. Izzy races back to him and he picks her up, spinning around with her. “You’re gonna be perfect because you’re always perfect.” He puts Izzy back down and she yanks the toy up from the ground, running back into the hay bales with it. 

Philip smiles softly and looks Lukas up and down to make himself feel better. 

Lukas turns around and grins at him. “Just say whatever you think is best, about their love or whatever, how they’ve helped you, then prompt them to do their vows and say something about kissing and then it’s over! We all clap, everybody’s happy.”

Philip snorts, shaking his head. “You sound like you’ve got it all figured out.”

“Of course I do,” Lukas says, holding his head high and smiling. He walks over and flops down beside Philip, patting the ground in front of them. Izzy sprints over like something is chasing her and jumps into Lukas’s lap, turning around twice like a cat before resting her chin on Lukas’s knee. Philip reaches out and scratches behind her ears, watching her blink slowly. Lukas leans his head on Philip’s shoulder, nuzzling into his neck. “Can’t wait to see you in your cute fucking outfit.”

“Same,” Philip says, resting his head on top of Lukas’s. “Whenever you wear that button up shirt I get all hot and bothered.”

“I always make you hot and bothered.”

Philip raises his eyebrows. “Yeah. But I’m doing something important tomorrow so I’m not even gonna look at you.”

Lukas straightens up and Philip tries not to laugh. He leans in, cupping Philip’s face in his hands. “Oh, you better look at me,” he whispers, kissing Philip’s cheek. “You better look at every inch of me.”

“Every inch, huh?” Philip asks, closing his eyes as Lukas’s mouth starts tracking down.

“Every time I blink. Every time I wave at you. Every time I stuff my mouth with too much potato salad.”

Philip snorts. “Every time? I won’t be able to look at anybody else as soon as the food comes out.”

“That’s the idea,” Lukas says, laughing.

~

Helen keeps texting him the next morning not to be nervous, which somehow makes him even more nervous. He’d looked at their script and pretty much has an idea of what he wants to say. He knows this isn’t a legal ceremony but they’ve done so much for him that he’s terrified of letting them down. He knows his life wouldn’t be anything without Helen and Gabe, literally, in Helen’s case. He doesn’t want to get up there and go blank and fuck it up like an idiot. 

“Stop,” Lukas says, suddenly standing close to him in front of the mirror. He pokes Philip in the stomach and Philip laughs, trying to wrench away before Lukas grabs him and pulls him in close. 

“You stop,” Philip says, twisting a little bit in Lukas’s arms but already feeling safer there. “You’re gonna rumple me.”

They’re both already dressed, in dress shirts and ties and the nice pants they bought almost a year ago that have been gathering dust in the back of their closet. 

“I’m gonna rumple your brain to make you stop freaking out,” Lukas says, kissing his forehead and rubbing his hands up and down Philip’s back. “It’s about that time, we’ve already got Izzy in the car.”

“Gimme a kiss,” Philip says, tipping his face up. 

Lukas hums a little and slots their mouths together, kissing him soft and sweet. It sends waves of warmth through Philip’s body and he tries to think about the cruise, about the date they’ve got planned in Central Park next week.

He thinks about the word Family. Thinks about his mom and how proud she would be of him. 

“Okay,” he says against Lukas’s lips. “Let’s go.”

~

The sky is an ominous color, gray with streaks of weak light streaming through the clouds. Philip is relieved that everyone isn’t really dressed up, even though Helen looks incredible in her simple blue dress. She has a matching bow to put around Izzy’s neck and insists that Lukas keeps her close during the whole thing, which Lukas in turn insists that he didn’t need to be told in the first place. 

Philip talks to Gabe’s parents for about twenty minutes straight, and apparently Gabe has been sending them his pictures and they think he’s good enough to be a professional. They try to get him to up his rates to a couple thousand per event, which sends him into hysterics, barely able to even conceive of such a thing. They each hug him for a long time and tell him they’re proud of him, and he tries not to cry and mess up Gabe’s mother’s purple shawl.

They help Helen set up the chairs under the tree and Tony decides to help them too. He hinders a lot more than he helps, acting like a few more inches between seats is absolutely necessary and nothing will go right if he doesn’t correct their mistake. Izzy bites his shoe a little and Philip has never been more proud of their little dog daughter. 

“Tony,” Lukas says, with an exaggerated sigh. 

“What?” Tony exclaims. “I just feel like boss lady could have had more flowers.”

“It isn’t a wedding,” Lukas says, his arm stretching out as Izzy tries to get at Tony again before he steps back just out of reach. “It’s a renewal.”

“Uh huh, uh huh,” Tony says, narrowing his eyes at them. 

“Nothing about it is legal,” Philip says. “Because they’re already legally married.”

“So it’s just an excuse to have a party?” Tony asks.

“You’re not invited to our wedding,” Lukas says, giving him a look. 

Philip snorts, that familiar tightening in his stomach presenting itself just as it does whenever he so much as thinks about their wedding. They’re not even engaged, and yet it’s so natural and easy to talk about. He’ll never get over it.

“Fine,” Tony says. “I wouldn’t know what the hell to get y’all as a gift anyhow. You just about get each other everything you could want.”

“Yeah right,” Lukas says, scoffing and looking at Philip. “We need plenty of things that we just don’t want to buy. Like new pots and pans. An ironing board. An iron.”

“Jesus Christ,” Philip says, laughing. 

“Real domestic,” Tony says, looking them up and down. “You need a couple aprons too?”

“Tony, if we had a backyard, I’d be asking for a grill and a kiss the cook apron,” Lukas says, and Philip laughs again because he can’t tell what the hell kind of tone Lukas is using or what he’s trying to prove. 

“Philip, come here,” Helen’s voice says, from a little bit away.

Philip nods, looking at Lukas. 

“I got this,” Lukas says, tugging Philip in and pressing a quick kiss to his lips. “Just text me if I need to get anything going.”

“Okay,” Philip says, smiling at him and reaching down to pat Izzy on the back. He walks over to where Helen and Gabe are standing, briefly glancing back at the congregation of people hanging around the tree. Bo is off talking to Kamilah and some other tall dark-haired woman, there’s a group of Helen’s out of town friends all laughing pretty loudly, and Gabe’s parents are wandering over to Lukas to pet the dog. 

Helen motions for him to walk faster.

“What’s wrong?” Philip asks, when he reaches her. “We running late? Do we need to start?”

“Not quite yet,” Gabe says. 

“We were just talking and there’s something we wanted to discuss with you, but you can’t tell Lukas about it.”

Philip lets out a whine before he can really think about it. “Oh no. No, I can’t…I can’t handle that.”

“You sure?” Helen asks, exchanging a look with Gabe.

“I…Lukas knows…well, we don’t really have secrets anymore,” he thinks, his mind running wild. “And if you told me I would inevitably tell him, which would be betraying you. And if I didn’t tell him it’d mean I’d be keeping something from him. I’d be betraying him.”

“How do you know it’s about him?” Helen asks, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Well isn’t it?” Philip asks.

Helen and Gabe look at each other again.

“Oh my God,” Philip says, covering his eyes. “You guys are gonna drive me insane. Don’t tell me. I can’t keep a secret from him.”

“Alright,” Helen says, though she sounds slightly disappointed.

Philip can’t imagine what the hell they’re talking about and he already knows he’s gonna tell Lukas about this conversation. He can’t even imagine not. Gabe laughs a little bit and Philip looks back up at them. “Should I text him to get them all in order?” Philip asks.

“Yeah,” Helen says, smiling at him. “You’re gonna walk down the aisle with us.”

Philip is momentarily distracted from the strange secret hanging in the air, and he smiles back.

~

He keeps trying to focus on Lukas’s face so he doesn’t lose his damn mind. Everyone is looking at them, him, Helen and Gabe, and Philip knows he’s got to start talking, like immediately. Tony is taking a video and Lukas has Philip’s camera and Philip sighs, swallowing hard.

“I’ve never seen a couple more in love than Helen and Gabe,” Philip says, his voice only cracking a little bit. “You can feel it all around you when you’re in the same room as them, can tell they’re this unbreakable unit running on a different wavelength than the rest of the world. They’re the kind of people that made me believe in soulmates.”

He looks up at Lukas and sees him take a picture, smiling wide. 

“They took me into their family and, uh—most people here know it wasn’t easy. That there were—circumstances beyond everybody’s control that made it one of the more difficult foster son integrating into a home situations.” He smiles softly and they smile back, adoration in Helen’s eyes. It’s the same look his mom used to give him, and Philip has a lump in his throat. “But they never—they never gave up on me. They tried harder and harder each day to make me feel like I belonged here, to make me feel loved when I needed it most. They are—they are my parents, and they’re an incredible example of love, a beautiful representation of what everyone should strive for.” His voice breaks a little bit again and he laughs, shaking his head and wiping his eyes. “I am so—so lucky to have them.”

Helen steps forward and kisses him on the cheek and Gabe moves in to hug them both, and Philip can hear all kinds of cameras going off. 

They step back and they’re both wiping their eyes too.

“So,” Philip says, grinning. “I know you both have some words for each other…”

“We just wanted to keep it simple,” Helen says, glancing out at the crowd and then back at Gabe. “You know what you mean to me. You know you make me stronger every single day, and bring out the brightness that sometimes feels…out of reach. You make me laugh harder than I ever thought I could, and you’re always raising that bar, constantly. You’re the love of my life.” She reaches out and takes Gabe’s hands.

“You’re the love of my life,” Gabe repeats, the two of them smiling. “You’re everything to me. The most beautiful woman in the world, exuding strength well beyond anything I could ever give you. I’m eternally grateful my path crossed yours, babe. There’s nothing I love more than waking up to your face every day.”

They start to move in to kiss each other and Philip stops being emotional for a second to step forward, holding his arm between them. “Hey, hey, hey!” he says. “Not quite yet.”

Everyone laughs and Lukas’s is loudest, so beautiful and melodious.

Philip clears his throat. He remembers repeating his speech to Lukas the night before, and tries to get his heart to chill out. “You exchanged rings when you got married and you still wear those rings today as a symbol of your love. You’ve renewed your vows that you made on that day, and you’ve symbolized that renewal with the words you spoke to each other today. This is the kind of love that endures,” he says, looking up to meet Lukas’s eyes. “The kind of love so strong that it lights up every room that you’re in together. So please, _now_ you can celebrate this renewal of vows with a kiss.”

They close the distance between them quickly, kissing longer than Philip has ever seen before. Everyone claps and he joins in too, Izzy yipping and dancing around at Lukas’s feet. 

~

It doesn’t take long for the rain to start. Even though the signs were all there it still takes their group by surprise, and because Tony is the only one wearing a jacket he quickly rips it off and holds it over Helen’s head. They run over to the barn where the food and tables are set up, and somehow they manage not to get too wet. It’s falling in sheets, splattering a little bit inside the barn doors.

Philip looks around and remembers Lukas’s words at Christmas before last. Knows that he wants to get married in here. 

“The potato salad, babe,” Lukas says, tugging on Philip’s hand as Tony turns on the music. 

“Right, I need to keep close watch,” Philip says. They walk over to the table and Lukas slips his arm around Philip’s waist, Izzy tugging at his other arm, clearly associating barns with play since last night.

“You did so good,” Lukas says, getting in line behind Helen’s friend Diane and the dark-haired woman he doesn’t know. “You were amazing, baby.”

“Yeah right,” Philip says, his cheeks coloring. “Keeping the happy couple from kissing when they want to. If anyone tried that with us you’d probably knock their arm away.”

“Just keeping the ceremony on track,” Lukas says, laughing. 

They reach the edge of the table and just as Lukas is reaching for two plates Izzy yanks him away, and Philip’s heart nearly jumps out of his throat when he sees her leash slip out from around Lukas’s wrist. 

“Shit!” Lukas yells, watching her disappear through the barn door.

Philip is all panic, the two of them taking off after her. Philip can vaguely hear Helen yelling his name but he can’t stop, and as soon as they’re out from underneath the shelter of the barn they’re completely soaked. He’s heard about dogs running away before, running and running until they’re goddamn gone and that won’t happen to their dog, no way, no how, absolutely not—

“Izzy!” Lukas yells. “Izzy, stop!”

“Hey!” Philip adds. “Stop, girl, stop!”

Lukas is running faster than him and the ground is so wet that Philip can barely keep his footing, sinking down into every step. He can still see her, rushing, and he has no idea what the hell she’s running for or chasing or if she saw a chicken or some shit in the corner of her vision but he wishes she’d just _stop_ —

Lukas reaches out and Philip can hardly see, the rain is falling so hard, but he does see Lukas’s tall, imposing form collapse to the ground, right into a particularly muddy patch of grass. Philip can’t stop his feet, he’s going too quick, and he trips over Lukas’s legs and goes down right next to him. He’s about to cry, so terrified Izzy is gone, but when he looks up he sees that Lukas managed to grab onto her leash. She’s sitting there, panting and soaked to the bone, and tip-toes over to where they are and starts licking at their foreheads.

“Izzy,” Lukas groans. “You—are a bad dog. A very bad dog.”

Philip looks over at Lukas and sees there’s mud all in his hair. All over his shirt. Caked on his face. Philip looks down at his own body and yeah, same situation. Even worse.

They’re both covered in mud. 

~

Philip can hear Helen’s voice outside the bathroom door, the only other sounds their dripping and Izzy’s panting. 

“Just get in the shower with your clothes on, put the dog in there too, and don’t mess around, just remember there are a bunch of people just a few steps away. And we’d rather have all three of you back at the party. Get clean, put the new clothes on and come back. That’s it!”

“Okay,” Philip says, smiling up at Lukas. He hears Helen walk down the hallway.

Lukas sighs to himself. “I can’t believe I let her go,” he says, looking down at Izzy.

“Don’t blame yourself,” Philip says. “She saw something and she ran. It’s never happened to us before.”

“Yeah and it should never happen,” Lukas says. “If she tries to run I’m supposed to face smash into the ground in order to hold onto her.”

“I mean, you got the face smash part right,” Philip says, reaching up and picking some muddy grass out of Lukas’s hair. He pinches his cheek and Lukas sighs, watching him move over and turn on the water. 

“We need to get you obedience lessons,” Lukas says, reaching down and ruffling Izzy’s ears. “Yes we do. You cannot run from daddies. That is not allowed.”

Philip snorts, feeling the water warm up. “Okay, let’s just—do this,” he says. 

Lukas picks her up, her little body wriggling around as the three of them step into the shower and close the door. 

“This is like prom,” Lukas says, sitting Izzy down on the ceramic. “Except for…non-naked shower. But we’re all wet in our nicer clothes.”

Philip turns around, his clothes getting more and more soaked with each passing second. “I’d rather it was a naked shower,” he says. He eases Lukas’s head forward until the water runs through his hair, and he works out the grass and the mud best as he can. Izzy looks up at them, confused.

“We’ll get naked once the mud is off the clothes,” Lukas says. “And we can wash this one and put her outside in the bathroom.” He quickly pulls Philip under the water and starts brushing his shoulders off, smoothing his hand over his butt a lot more than he needs to. 

Philip snorts. “She’d bark at us. You remember that time.”

“She always barks at us because she’s bad,” Lukas says, picking her up again and holding her between them under the water. She blinks, groaning a little bit. “They still have that dog shampoo from last time?” Lukas asks.

Philip looks down at the shelf and sees it sitting there. “Yep, just where we left it.”

“Nice,” Lukas says. He looks at Philip and grins widely, laughing. “We look really stupid,” he says.

“I think you look sexy,” Philip says, leaning in to press a peck to his lips. “I guess you get one too,” he says to Izzy, kissing the top of her head. “Even though you’re bad.”

They wash Izzy and Philip gets out of the shower briefly to dry her off, making her a little pile of towels by the door. He strips off his clothes and leaves them in a wet heap outside the shower, lacking the mud they came in with. When he gets back into the shower he sees Lukas is down to his pants, and he helps him out of them, depositing everything outside and closing the door again once they’re both naked.

Izzy starts barking.

Lukas grabs Philip by his hips and pulls him in so they’re flush together. “She’s so bad,” he whispers, nipping lightly at Philip’s mouth. “Terrible child.”

“Of course she is, she’s ours,” Philip says. 

Lukas slides his hands around until they’re pressing against the small of Philip’s back and he kisses him deep, until Philip’s stomach nearly turns in on himself and his knees go weak. 

“We have to get back…” Philip breathes, clinging to Lukas’s shoulders.

“I was thinking about some things,” Lukas whispers. “In that barn. Before the dog escaped.”

“Yeah?” Philip asks, his eyelids heavy.

“Yeah, like where our decorations and lights would go—where we’d actually say our vows…I have so much I wanna say to you…”

“Not yet,” Philip says, pressing two fingers to Lukas’s mouth. 

“Oh, soon,” Lukas says, kissing Philip’s cheek. “Definitely soon.”

“Hey!” Helen’s voice yells, and they both jump when she starts banging on the door. “Hurry up in there!”

Izzy starts barking at her too.

“Alright,” Lukas whispers, grinning, and he looks so gorgeous with the water clinging to his eyelashes, the little bruise on his forehead from where he fell. Philip grabs his neck and tilts his head down so he can kiss it, letting his lips linger there. 

“I guess we gotta get back to the party,” Philip says. “And the cake.”

“Lemme just hold you for a second here,” Lukas says, tugging him closer. “Just a second.”

It’s a familiar line, a familiar action. Lukas always wants to hold him for a second, just a second, like a moment alone with Philip is always necessary before they interact with other people, even if those people are their family. Philip chuckles and nods, wrapping his arms around Lukas’s shoulders. He kisses his neck and closes his eyes, the world narrowing down to the water, their silly dog barking, and Lukas’s arms around him.


End file.
